Have No Fear
by Mistress Leigh
Summary: After an unexpected tragedy Harry and Hermione draw comfort from one another and gather strength for the coming war.


It was late when he returned to the common room that night, so close to curfew that he didn't think he was going to make it. His mind was crowded with all of the things that Dumbledore had shown him, the memories of a young Tom Riddle who was evil incarnate, even as a child. Harry fought the awareness that there were eerie similarities between the two of them, things that could have made Harry turn out just as dark, if not for…what, exactly? Harry had been just as friendless, just as alone and abused as Riddle had been. Dumbledore seemed to think that Harry's capacity to love somehow made him different, but Harry hadn't decided if he believed him or not. He certainly didn't feel very loving right now.

He had barely gotten through the portrait hole, his only desire to have a hot shower and fall into bed, when a very agitated Neville Longbottom startled him into alertness. "HARRY! I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?"

"Er…I had a meeting with Dumbledore, and then I went for a walk. Look, Neville, could whatever it is wait until morning? I'm really…"

"No! No, it can't wait!" Neville grabbed him by the arm and pushed him into a chair, causing Crookshanks (who had been lounging in the chair watching the boys conversation with extreme interest,) to leap quickly to the floor, yowling in protest. "This is important!"

Harry sighed wearily, but nodded his acceptance. He knew that Neville, who was usually so quiet and unassuming, would not push for his attention if it were not necessary. Still, if it wasn't _extremely _important…"Spit it out, Neville. I want to go to bed."

"It's Hermione, " Neville began, and Harry felt himself stiffen in alarm. "McGonagall was in here earlier, and she told Hermione that she needed to see her in her office. Harry…Hermione's parents were murdered tonight."

Without waiting for him to continue, Harry jumped to his feet and looked frantically around the room, hoping to catch sight of his best friend. Neville shook his head. "She isn't here. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I don't know the details about her parents, but I know it was Death Eaters, and I think they used Fiendfyre. Hermione was nearly hysterical when she came back, and I took her to try to find you or Ron. Obviously, we couldn't find you, and when we found Ron he was with Lavender in an old class room and she wouldn't even let Hermione or I speak…said that we were just trying to interfere in her time with 'Won Won' and slammed the door in our faces. Hermione ran off, and I couldn't find her. I've been looking for you ever since, hoping that you might know where she would have gone."

Harry nodded, his mind racing with ideas about where she could be, and knowing that he needed to get away from Neville to use the map. He clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Thanks, Nev. I'll find her. You're a good friend."

He didn't even look back to see the look of happiness on Neville's face settle into one of confusion as he ran up the stairs two at a time. He grabbed the map and invisibility cloak from his trunk and was sprinting back down the stairs before Neville even had a chance to ask what he was doing, As soon as the portrait closed behind him, he threw the invisibility cloak over his head and opened up the map, searching for the dot labeled with Hermione's name. He just hoped that she hadn't left the castle.

It took him only a couple of minutes to find her name, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, when he realized that she was in the astronomy tower, he pocketed the map and took off at a dead run, pausing only a moment to silence his shoes so that no one would hear him in his rush. He couldn't bear the thought of Hermione being alone any more than was necessary.

By the time he skidded to a stop in front of the door to the astronomy tower, he had worked himself up into a panic. What if she didn't want to see him? What if she blamed him? If it weren't for their friendship, her parents might not have been targeted. Granted, other muggle-borns and their families had been attacked, but Hermione had to have been high on Voldemort's priority list because of her relationship with him. He was so worried about her reaction to him that when he opened the door, it almost didn't register with him what he was seeing – and when it did, he nearly stopped breathing.

There, on the railing of the astronomy tower, stood Hermione. She was holding on with one hand, tears streaming down her face and swaying dangerously in the wind. Harry froze, thankful that he had already silenced his shoes because he was terrified to make a sound and startle her. If she lost her balance …he shivered, not because of the cold, but because of the certain knowledge that he would never be able to live with himself if she fell. He might as well jump off after her.

His mind raced, trying desperately to think of what to do. If he said something, or made any sound at all, she might fall, but he couldn't just stand there and watch this any longer. He wondered if he could summon her to him, but he had never summoned a person before and had no idea if it would work, and just when he had convinced himself to try, he heard her speak. "It's okay, Harry. I know that you're here."

Breathing a sigh of relief, he walked softly toward her, still afraid of doing anything to startle her. "Hermione…please…just give me your hand. You don't want to do this. I know about your parents. I'm so sorry, and I'll do anything that I can to help you, but please…"

Hermione didn't move, and when she spoke it was as if he hadn't said a word. "Did you know that my mother was always afraid of fire, Harry? She was terrified of it. She didn't even light candles, and when my father lit a fire in the fireplace she would leave the room. She knew that it was a phobia, and that she should try to get over it, but she never did. " She paused, and Harry could see her shoulders shaking as she tried to suppress her sobs. "They killed them with fiendfyre, Harry. Sealed the house so that they couldn't escape and set it on fire. Can you imagine how terrified she must have been? How terrified they both must have been?"

"I know! I know, Hermione, but they wouldn't have wanted this! They would have wanted to know that you were safe, that you would live on even if they couldn't be with you! Please Hermione, just give me your hand!"

Something in his voice must have gotten through to her, because she looked down at him and for a moment he could see his Hermione looking back – the Hermione that was always so logical and pragmatic. She shook her head. "Harry…I'm not going to jump. I know that my death wouldn't change anything, and I wouldn't do that to you. I just…wanted to see what it was like. My mother died facing her biggest fear, and I just needed…I needed to feel this. To feel what she felt. I know that it doesn't make any sense, but …"

"Okay, that's fine, but Hermione…I'll take you out on my broom! Whenever you want! Just please, _please_…" He took another step closer to her, and this time when she looked down at him she could see the terror in his eyes, and with a sob she reached out her hand. He pulled her to him with such force that they both fell onto the floor and, after checking to make sure that she wasn't hurt, he pulled her into his chest and moved back a bit until he was leaning against the wall. He quickly cast a warming charm on the both of them, and then he simply held her as she cried. At some point, he didn't know how long it had been, he realized that he was crying, too.

They stayed that way for what felt like hours, but neither of them cared about anything but their shared grief. Hermione knew that Harry was crying, not only for her, but for everyone and everything that had been lost in this stupid war with a madman bent on destroying him. She knew that he, more than anyone in her life, would be able to understand how she felt, and so she sobbed until there were no tears left. When neither of them could cry anymore, they simply sat, holding one another, until "Hermione finally raised her head and looked at him as if she had never seen him before.

"Thank you, Harry. For coming to find me, and for staying here with me. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't shown up when you did. I wasn't going to jump, but…I've just never felt so alone. I needed you here."

"You don't have to thank me. I'm just sorry that I wasn't here sooner. I went for a walk after my meeting with Dumbledore, and I didn't even know what had happened until Neville told me."

"How did it go? The meeting, I mean."

Harry sighed in frustration, shaking his head, "I don't feel as if we're accomplishing much, honestly. Dumbledore keeps showing me these memories about Riddle, and I can't help but feel as if we're wasting time. I get that I should know what motivates him, but all it's doing is showing me how similar the two of us are, and it's frightening, really. To think that I could have..."

"No!" Hermione interrupted, frowning, "You couldn't have, Harry. It isn't in you to be like him, and what happened tonight should show you that. Do you think Tom Riddle would have gone looking for his friend like you did tonight, and then sat with them while they cried? This is what makes you different, and this is why you will beat him." She gently touched his face, forcing him to look at her. "Harry, Voldemort thinks that he has weakened me tonight, that in my devastation I won't be able to be of any use to you, but he is wrong. This has made me more determined than ever to help you defeat him. We _will _win. He will pay for what he has done." She said all this with such certainty, and such determination, that Harry couldn't help but believe her. He felt a bit of hope blossom inside of him that maybe, just maybe, she was right.

They were silent for a moment, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Abruptly, Hermione changed the subject. "Did Neville tell you that we tried to talk to Ron, to tell him about my parents?"

Harry signed, wishing that his other best friend had been thinking about anything other than snogging his new girlfriend tonight. How could he not have seen that Hermione was devastated? He nodded, immediately trying to think of something to excuse Ron's behavior. "Yeah, he told me. Hermione, you know how Ron is. He'll come to you begging your forgiveness as soon as he realizes what happened!"

But Hermione was already shaking her head, "That's just it, Harry…he won't. He might feel horrible, but he won't acknowledge it. He'll just expect me to understand that he's sorry without him saying anything, and to go on as if nothing happened. And I will. I'll forgive him, because his friendship means a lot to me, but I think this did have the benefit of letting me see that things would never work out between us…romantically, I mean. My father tried to tell me…he said that we were just too different, and he was never fond of Ron…" and then the tears were flowing again, and Harry put his arm back around her and held her until this fresh wave of grief subsided.

Harry found himself wondering, idly, why he felt such a wave of relief when Hermione said that things would never work out between her and Ron. He reasoned that it was probably because he wanted things to stay the same with the three of them, and that he didn't want to be left out of their relationship. He knew, though, that after tonight there was a closeness between Hermione and himself that had not been there before, a bond that felt stronger to him than any he could remember feeling with anyone else. Perhaps _that _would change the dynamic between the three of them, but he hoped not. What he did know was that Ron _would _be apologizing to Hermione in the morning, because Harry would see to it.

Hermione eventually sat up again and self-consciously wiped at her face and tucked her hair behind her ears. She gave Harry a small smile before looking down at the floor. "We should probably get back. It's late, and I have to speak with Professor McGonagall about arrangements for my…for my parents. And there are classes tomorrow."

"Will you be okay? I don't want you to be alone right now."

She was quiet for a moment, and Harry began to worry that the grief was going to be too much. Just as he was thinking of taking her to the Room of Requirement with him and staying with her until morning, she spoke softly, "I'm not sure if I'll ever feel okay again, honestly. This all seems so unreal, as if I will wake up in the morning and it will have been a dream. But...I think I need to go back, and I know that you need to get some sleep. It'll be okay. I'll find you in the morning, as soon as I've talked with Professor McGonagall. And thank you again, Harry…for everything."

Harry just smiled and took her hand, pulling her gently to her feet. Throwing the invisibility cloak around both of them, he nudged her toward the door and they slowly made their way back to the common room. Once safely inside, he hugged her once more, wishing that there was more that he could do for her. She hugged him back, and just when he began to wonder if she were ever going to let go, she turned and climbed the stairs to her dorm room without another word. Once she reached the top, however, she turned once more and looked down at Harry, who was still watching her. She smiled at him, tears in her eyes once more. "It's going to be all right, isn't it Harry? For both of us?"

Harry nodded, trying his best to look sure of himself, for her. "Of course it is. We'll make sure of it. As long as we have each other, right?"

"Of course. And we _will _always have each other. I mean, it's _us, _right? How could we not be forever?"

And as she disappeared into the darkness, Harry realized that she was right.


End file.
